“No doubt. But encouraging them to believe in an illusion would be bound to backfire, even without organized opposition.” The commander sighed, then reached for his phone. “I’ll get you an escort back to your shuttle. You’ll be mobbed again if you walk out there alone.”
“I have business in the city,” Terry said, “I’ve got to take care of it before I leave.”
“Frankly, Steward, you are not welcome here; you’ve been seen on the news and we don’t want another disturbance.”
“I won’t be recognized away from the port if I avoid public places.”
“Perhaps not, but getting out of it, and back again, would be impossible.”
Terry hesitated, debating whether he dared make the suggestion that came to mind. There didn’t seem to be any alternative. “I was here many years ago,” he said, “and I had friends among the junior Fleet officers. Some of them were, well, delayed in getting back from leave sometimes . . . and there was a tunnel—” He wasn’t disclosing any secrets; all the officers had known about it. Young pilots were allowed a good deal of leeway.
With a smile the commander said, “I guess we can let you out that way. But you’ll have to make your own way back after dark, and I want your shuttle gone by morning.”
Terry refrained from revealing that he knew which corridor led to the tunnel and let the provided escort take him to its entrance. He recalled the last time he had been there, late on the night before his departure for the training base on Titan. With no knowledge of what lay in store for him there or the deployment to Maclairn that had followed, he had been bitter—he’d been due for command on his next explorer mission and the unexpected, seemingly senseless orders he’d received had outraged him. He had never wanted to be anything but an explorer pilot. That he might someday find himself committed to a more far-reaching goal would have been unbelievable.
As he left Fleet’s building he looked back with a sudden surge of sadness. On receiving his commission he had sworn to uphold League law. By falsely identifying his ship and the crew’s citizenship he had broken it, and now he was embarking on a path that would involve more serious breaches. He had no regrets, considering the change in his circumstances, but the memory of his uncomplicated former life was bittersweet.
~ 21 ~
Once in the city Terry entered the nearest place where he’d be unlikely to be noticed, a dark, sleazy-looking bar, and phoned Zach. “I’ll pick you up,” Zach offered. “I’ve got some information for you, and after seeing that newscast I’m damn sure you’d better not attract any more attention.”
When he arrived Terry moved quickly from the bar to his groundcar. “How did a story like that ever get started?” Zach asked as they headed for the Emporium. “I guess you delivered the antivirals to the clinic personally, but this other stuff—”
Terry told him as much as he could without implying any psi capability. “Turning off suffering from pain is a trick of the mind,” he said. “Anyone can do it if the conditions are right; I just showed them how. It only worked in that special case, for a little while—to do it consistently takes special training.”
“Which apparently you’ve had.” Slowly Zach added, “There are people who’d pay a good deal for that kind of training.”
“It’s not for sale, Zach.”
“No, I don’t suppose it is. I suppose it has something to do with your knowing more about the ship Estel than I’d heard from the first trader who mentioned it. That rumor has grown since you were here, by the way. It’s all over the Net. And when I passed it on by ansible, which you didn’t tell me not to do, I got back some interesting information from Earth. It seems there are people there with the same sort of ideas this Captain of Estel talks about.”
He went on to repeat the information Terry had gotten from the Fleet commander, but had details to add to it. “These guys opposing believers in paranormal stuff are a nasty bunch,” he said once they had settled in his workroom to talk. “None of my contacts want anything to do with them. It’s one thing to ignore laws, and I deal with plenty who break more than I do. But it’s something else to stir up hatred and go after anybody with a different way of thinking. In any case, I don’t hold with killing except when it’s a matter of defense.”
“They’re actually killing people?” Terry exclaimed. “Like gangland shootouts?”
“Nothing so common as that. But there have been lynchings. And they work hard at terrorizing people they don’t go so far as to kill. They burn houses, or crosses stuck up in front of a house. They cover themselves with white robes and masks so they can’t be recognized and defy anyone to stop them. And no one does, unless there’s evidence of murder. The police on Earth are too busy trying to trap rule-breakers like me to take on a bunch of weirdos that there’s no way to identify.”
“Oh, my God.” What Zach was saying triggered a memory of something Terry had once read; since boyhood he had spent a good deal of time poking around knowledgebases, and ancient history had fascinated him. “Does this terrorist movement have a name?” he asked.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, but it doesn’t make sense—it would be laughable if they weren’t so violent. They call themselves the Ku Klux Klan.”
Shocked, Terry said, “It makes all too much sense. That’s the name of a group that existed way back in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its tactics were just the same. And so were its motives—it aimed to foster hatred of anybody different from its members. At first they just hated dark-skinned people, who were underdogs in the area where they lived—”
“Dark-skinned people?” Zach scowled. “I know that hundreds of years ago my ancestors were treated unjustly, but you’re saying they were targeted by terrorists?”
“Some were. The Klan also persecuted people of other minorities, Jews and Catholics and foreigners. Of course wars have been fought for similar reasons, but this wasn’t on as large a scale as a war. Klansmen were just losers who took out their frustrations on those they treated as scapegoats. At times they had a lot of supporters, but after racial and religious prejudice became socially unacceptable, the organization died out.”
“It should have stayed dead,” Zach remarked grimly.
“But the revival is understandable,” Terry said, “because living conditions on Earth are so bad now and for the first time in centuries, there is a group of natural targets.”
“You think there are people who can really do paranormal stuff, not just talk about it?”
“Yes,” Terry admitted. “At least a few, enough to arouse opposition from men seeking something to oppose. The Klan made its members feel important. It involved a lot of powerful symbolism that was turned to evil ends. Any movement, good or bad, needs symbols in order to thrive. So to stir up violence against people with new and frightening abilities, somebody without the imagination to create a new symbol unearthed an ancient one that fit.”
“If that’s true,” Zach said, “then the good guys had better get a symbol, too.” There was a pause. Then he said reflectively, “God, that’s what’s happening, isn’t it? With the rumor about Estel?”
“I’d like to think so,” Terry replied. “But I doubt if the Captain of Estel knew he was going up against the Ku Klux Klan.”
“There’s something else he doesn’t know,” Zach declared, “which is one reason I’m glad you came today, Steward. And I’m even gladder since I saw on the news that people are confusing you with him, because that’s a dangerous position to be in.”
“I don’t like it,” Terry said, “but I wouldn’t call it dangerous as long as I stay clear of the Klan.”
Zach said slowly, “I don’t know who you are or what you’ve been doing before now; since your ID’s so clean I’ll wager it doesn’t show your real name or anything about your past. But I could tell you were a special case from the moment I first I talked to you, and hearing that you didn’t take a profit on the antivirals bears that out. You know something about this Estel business, and I’m willing to
bet you’ve got a way to contact the man in charge.”
When Terry didn’t reply, he went on, “At first I thought there wasn’t really any Captain of Estel, that it was all some kind of fantasy. I heard otherwise from my friends on Earth. There’s a bounty on him. The word is out that unnamed sources will pay triple the going price; some in my network were set to go for it until I told them to lay off. You sure as hell don’t want anyone thinking you’re him, and so maybe you can warn him to lie low.”
Terry drew breath. He had known it would happen sometime, but he hadn’t thought he’d be targeted so soon. “Is the Klan behind it?” he asked.
“I don’t think so—they don’t operate that way, and they don’t have that kind of money. I’d guess that it’s coming from higher up, maybe even somebody with government connections. It’s been hinted that rough stuff won’t be prosecuted.”
“In other words, he’s wanted dead or alive.”
“Yes, but there’s a bonus if he’s delivered alive, and that means either he’s believed to have information of value, or somebody has a grudge that demands personal payback.”
It had to be Quaid, Terry realized despairingly. He must have gotten word to his contacts on Earth after all. They didn’t know his current name or his ship’s—but the news that Captain Steward of Coralie had spoken of Estel on Toliman might be reported by ansible, and they would surely assume there was some connection.
Chilled, he recalled what Quaid had said to him when taking him out of prison: If you ever suggest to anyone, in any way, that this trip ever happened, you will die in the most unpleasant way our biochemists can devise.
Twice now he had let emotion blind him to caution; he had named Quaid in his broadcast, and he had revealed a relationship to Estel by his talk in the clinic. Twice, too, in Zach’s box and on Toliman, he had been jolted by the fear that he’d led Alison into worse danger than he’d planned. Was it true what Jon had said, that he felt after escaping the crash of Venture that he was leading a charmed life? Would he pay for his recklessness, leaving her and the others stranded on some unfamiliar world to rebuild their lives without him?
“Either way,” Zach was saying, “I wouldn’t want to be in that Captain’s shoes if he’s brought in.”
With difficulty, Terry concealed the extent of his dismay. “Thanks, Zach,” he said. “I’ll see that the warning is passed on.”
~ 22 ~
That night, having returned to the spaceport after dark and lifted off without incident, Terry boarded Estel in a quandary. “Gather around,” he said to the crew. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
He had spent a long time with Zach, waiting for darkness, and had learned a good deal from him about possible markets for plastic resin pellets and future sources of cargo, as well as about the climate of opinion in various colonies he might visit. Still, deciding on a destination was going to be hard.
The crew had seen the spaceport newscast live, and shared Terry’s consternation. “We can’t ever go where there’s an epidemic again,” Alison said, “or where people in pain are likely to be in contact with us.”
“No. But my reputation may spread,” he said. “So it may be that we can’t go anywhere receptive to belief in psychic healing. And there’s another factor that has to be considered.”
He told them, then, what he had learned from the Fleet commander and from Zach about the situation on Earth. “It’s a lot worse than I expected,” he said. “I knew Maclairn had secret enemies in the League government. But the open, organized persecution of anybody who reveals an interest in psi is another matter.”
“I don’t see how a fringe group like this Ku Klux Klan can attract enough members to be a real threat,” Jon argued. “Surely it’s just a few psychos attracting excess publicity, the way serial killers do.”
“Historically, the Klan attracted many members who weren’t psychos,” Terry said. “In some eras it was supported, theoretically in secret, even by community leaders; they acted anonymously but everybody knew who was involved. That’s what hatred does to people. They lose all sense of decency and reason.”
“But why would they hate anybody because of the color of their skin?” protested Gwen. “That’s just senseless. A difference like that is too trivial to cause conflict.”
“Well, there were complicated reasons why skin color was considered significant,” Terry said, “because at that time skin variations weren’t evenly distributed among the population. What’s relevant now is that the people with the most power were afraid those unlike themselves would gain equal power—and the difference today isn’t trivial. Humans who have, or want, psi abilities really are different from the majority who fear such a change. So it’s easy to turn zealots against them.”
“A mob, yes,” Alison agreed. “The sheep will follow whoever leads them. But to create an organized hate campaign based on ancient symbols strikes me as a very calculated process. It seems odd that people of the sort to fall for it had the skill to do that.”
“I don’t for a minute think they did,” Terry replied. “As you say, it must have required some sophisticated social engineering. And that didn’t come from within the Klan; the historical connection is too obscure for uneducated bigots to have been aware of. I’m willing to bet that they’re just tools and that the movement was set in motion by the high-level conspirators in the League that I told you about.”
“You mean the ones who backed the terrorists you killed?” asked Gwen. Terry had filled her in on the basic facts about Maclairn during the flight to Toliman.
“Yes,” he said. “This is just the sort of thing they’d try. It must have started long before they made the attempt to destroy Maclairn, of course—it would take years for such a movement to get well established.”
“Then the terrorists were Klan members.”
“That’s unlikely,” said Alison. “Most people who join hate groups are basically cowards. They destroy and kill from fear because it makes them feel stronger than those they attack, but they generally avoid risking their own necks. Fanatics recruited for suicide missions are of another breed.”
“You’re saying the League government is as corrupt as Ciencia’s” Jon said grimly. “I thought maybe we’d seen the end of that, but if it’s true that the police aren’t putting down the violence—”
“The police on Earth gave up on stopping gang warfare long ago,” Terry said. “It wouldn’t take many corrupt officials to keep them from making an effort to stop hate crimes. But Maclairn’s enemies are stronger than I thought, and they’re manipulating public feelings. I’d give a good deal to know how the mentors on Earth are responding. It must be hell for them—there’d be no way of doing the job they came for if they didn’t keep their views secret from everyone but their trainees.”
“Then they probably isolate themselves from world affairs,” Alison said.
“Yes, but mentors are far more telepathic than I am, and they’ll feel the pain, even the emotional pain, of victims everywhere as if it were their own.”
You’re feeling it yourself, in your imagination, she observed silently. It’s going to be hell for you, too. . . .
He clenched his fingers. “I can’t do anything about it!” he mumbled. “Even if I were free to go to Earth, I’d be helpless—”
“You did a lot on Ciencia,” Jon reminded him. “You can influence more colonies the same way.”
Terry hesitated, then said, “That’s what I’ve set out to do. But it’s more complicated than we knew at first. I can’t go where I’ll be a public figure reputed to have magic healing powers; that rules out worlds where the ideas I’ve been promoting will be welcomed. Yet on worlds where they won’t, I’m likely to run into what now seems to be a violent attempt to suppress them. The risk is greater than you people bargained for.”
“I’m okay with that,” Jon declared. “Don’t worry about it.”
“We have two choices,” Terry went on. “We can go somewhere safe, sell our cargo, a
nd probably make a good living for years by smuggling without anyone guessing that I have anything to do with the Estel rumors. Or we can go where we can spread them most effectively and sooner or later, encounter hostility.”
“We always knew we would,” Alison said calmly.
“But the danger isn’t just to us. The man I talked to in Fleet made me realize that by encouraging the people of Ciencia and other colonies to adopt new ideas, I was setting them up to be threatened by the hatemongers.”
“Terry,” said Jon, “you can’t have it both ways. Either you believe these new ideas are vital to the survival of civilization, as you told us, or you don’t. If you do, then they’re worth risk for everyone who cares, not just you.”
“That’s how civilization has progressed from the beginning of time, isn’t it?” Alison added. “You know more about history than I do—isn’t it true that millions of people sacrificed and died to get us where we are now?”
“Yes, of course,” Terry said. “But I need to be sure you all see it that way. Gwen?”
“When I heard the recording of your trial speech I thought it was just about ending the censorship on Ciencia,” Gwen said, “yet it made me feel I’d fight for anything you believed in. Now that I know it’s so much bigger than one world, and so important . . . well, it’s a matter of choosing sides, isn’t it? A person can’t be neutral about something other people are being killed for. And if I’m on your side, then I’m committed.”
Terry nodded, deeply touched by their support. “Okay,” he said. “We’re all agreed that we’re going to keep on promoting what Estel stands for. But there’s one more thing you’re entitled to know.”
He had not told them this part yet; he’d wanted to be sure they’d back him for the goal’s sake and not just out of friendship or loyalty. Now he said soberly, “There’s a price on my head. Zach told me bounty hunters on Earth are looking for Estel.”
The Rising Flame: Box Set: Defender of the Flame + Herald of the Flame Page 58